Welcome to the Book Marks Questionnaire, where we ask authors questions about the books that have shaped them.
This week, we spoke to Darling Rose Gold author Stephanie Wrobel.
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Book Marks: First book you remember loving?
Stephanie Wrobel: Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein.
BM: Favorite re-read?
SW: I will never tire of Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. I think it’s one of the best studies on voice that has ever been written. Merricat Blackwood is perfection.
BM: A book that blew your mind?
SW: We Need to Talk About Kevin by Lionel Shriver. The narrator completely enthralled me—and then there was *the* twist when you weren’t even looking for one!
BM: Last book you read?
SW: American Heiress: The Wild Saga of the Kidnapping, Crimes and Trial of Patty Hearst by Jeffrey Toobin. What a crazy story, place, and decade.
BM: A book that made you cry?
SW: The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai took me past welling and into sobbing.
BM: What book from the past year would you like to give a shout-out to?
SW: Daisy Jones and The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid. I love Reid’s musings on art, ambition, independence, and power.
BM: A book that actually made you laugh out loud?
SW: Casey McQuiston’s Red, White & Royal Blue is one of the funniest books I’ve read.
BM: Favorite book to give as a gift?
SW: I’m constantly shoving books into loved ones’ hands. Some flop but Fredrik Backman’s Beartown has been universally adored.
BM: Classic book on your To Be Read pile?
SW: The Count of Monte Cristo. The length of it has scared me off for years, but one of my 2020 reading goals is to get through two brick-sized books on my shelf. I recently finished The Executioner’s Song by Norman Mailer. I’ll tackle Dumas in the fall.
BM: Favorite book no one has heard of?
SW: I’m sure others have heard of it, but perhaps I can give a signal boost to Ella Risbridger’s Set Me On Fire. It’s a poetry collection organized by emotion. I pick it up every few weeks whenever the mood strikes. I love the anthology’s playfulness and accessibility. One poem is called “Monica” by Hera Lindsay Bird that’s about, among other things, how horrible Monica from Friends is. My friends from home called me the Monica of our group—you wouldn’t think I’d love the poem as much as I do.
BM: Favorite book you were assigned in high school?
SW: Lord of the Flies by William Golding. Technically I read it for English class in eighth grade but close enough.
BM: Book(s) you’re reading right now?
SW: Savage Appetites: Four True Stories of Women, Crime, and Obsession by Rachel Monroe, An American Marriage by Tayari Jones, and Bel Canto by Ann Patchett.
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Stephanie Wrobel grew up in Chicago but has been living in the UK for the last three years with her husband and dog, Moose Barkwinkle. She has an MFA from Emerson College and has had short fiction published in Bellevue Literary Review. Before turning to fiction, she worked as a creative copywriter at various advertising agencies. Visit her online at www.stephaniewrobel.com, Instagram @stephaniewrobel and Twitter @stephwrobel.
Stephanie Wrobel’s Darling Rose Gold is out now from Berkley
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